Apple Pest Management Calendar

1996-1997 New England Apple Pest Management Guide

1996-1997 New England Apple Pest Management Guide, pp. 4-5

Maintain deer fence, check for deer and rabbit damage.
Check deer repellents and move or replace if necessary.
Check for vole damage or activity; re&shyp;bait if necessary.
Review pest management activities of the past year. Read bulletins, fact sheets, magazine articles. Plan pest management strategy for the coming season.
Plan orchard groundcover management strategy.
Set up pesticide record keeping system.
Inventory pesticides in storage.
Order early season pesticides and pest monitoring supplies.
Attend winter fruit meetings to share and learn information. Earn pesticide applicator license recertification credits.
Consider pest management while pruning (open canopies, remove dead and diseased wood and mummified fruit, prune out fire blight cankers).
Remove unsprayed apple, pear, plum and hawthorn trees within 50 meters (100 if possible) of orchard.
Remove windbreaks that interfere with air drainage during the summer.

Maintain fences for deer exclusion, check vole guards.
Check tractor(s) and make needed repairs. Clean and check sprayer(s) for leaks.
Replace worn nozzles, weak hoses, and inaccurate pressure gauges.
Calibrate sprayers, test spray pattern with water sensitive paper.
As needed, set sticky traps for leafminers and tarnished plant bug to detect timing of emergence and as general indication of abundance.
Remove prunings from orchard. Burn or compost those with canker or fire blight.

Pest monitoring as needed, such as: leafminers, tarnished plant bug -- check canopies and traps from halfinch green to pink; scab -- begin regular scouting about 2 weeks after first infection period; rosy apple aphid, green fruitworm -- check foliage at pink and during bloom.
Early season weed control.
Mowing between pink and first cover removes habitat for TPB, driving them intothe trees. Unless dandelion competition with bloom requires mowing, avoid mowing during this period. Avoid disturbing adjacent fields of clover, alfalfa or broadleaf weeds until after fruit set. If they must be disturbed, try to do so just after an insecticide application.
During bloom is the best time to identify wild/unsprayed apple and pear trees near the orchard as they will bloom about the same time as the orchard. If there is not enough time to remove them, they can be marked for later removal.

Pest monitoring at appropriate time (scab lesions, mites, plum curculio, leafminer sap feeding mines, white apple leafhopper, mullein plant bug).
For orchards with sod in the tree row, delaying mowing until after apple scab ascospore releases have ended may help by trapping spores in the grass.
Check sprayer calibration and adjust for summer applications.
Identify summer weed problems. Pull water sprouts.
Intensive primary scab check before extending intervals between fungicide sprays.
Scab eradication if lesions found.

Adjust fungicide interval to prevailing weather.
Pest monitoring, such as: July -- mites, set and check apple maggot traps, second generation leafminer adults and sapfeeding mines, aphids, scab. August -- mites, apple maggot, white apple leafhopper, aphids, scab.
Summer pruning (in addition to affects on coloring, etc.) contributes to pest management via better drying conditions, better spray penetration and less aphid/leafhopper habitat. Pull water sprouts.
Leaf samples for nutrient analysis (too much nitrogen contributes to mite and aphid populations and increases susceptibility to fire blight).
Mowing will reduce humidity in canopies making conditions less suitable for growth of disease fungi. Short grass discourages voles.
Remove hand thinned fruit from orchard or rake them into the drive path to hasten decomposition to prevent creating a fungal disease reservoir.
Weekly drop removal after midAugust to interrupt lifecycle of apple maggot, codling moth, leafrollers.
Nematode testing for new planting areas.

As pest damage is observed during harvest, make notes to help in preseason planning for next season.
PostHarvest IPM practices as described in PART 1: Post-harvest Rots.

After harvest and before leaf fall, check 600 terminals per block for scab lesions to determine the amount of overwintering scab that will be present in the block next spring. Knowing the inoculum load is needed to benefit from the DelayedSpray Strategy.
Check trunks (small diameter trees especially) for signs of borers.
Vole monitoring to identify areas of high activity. Mow grass to discourage vole invasion. Apply poison bait where needed.
Where pine voles are a threat, trapping to detect their presence.
Remove or mow drops to disrupt insect pest and disease lifecycles, and to remove food for voles and competition for poison bait.
Weed control (especially brambles and other tough to control perennials).
Removing broad leaf weed hosts (such as mullein, pigweed, and golden rod) in and around the orchard decreases the overwintering tarnished plant bug population. The significance of this decrease depends on the abundance of other tarnished plant bug host plants near the orchard.

Mow before poisonbaiting voles after harvest. Monitor vole activity to see if retreatment is necessary.
Check placement and condition of tree guards to prevent vole feeding.
Trunk painting to protect against sudden temperature changes or rabbits.
If deer repellents will be used, set them before deer establish a feeding habit. Inspect and make repairs to deer fence.
Perform scab sanitation if foliar scab assessment indicates that doing so will allow a DelayedSpray Strategy next year.
Clean, service and properly store equipment and leftover materials.
Remove old trees for orchard sanitation.